The Last of Us Season 1: Reception, Guide, and Questions

Few shows made people who never played a video game feel so personally invested in one as The Last of Us. The HBO adaptation, starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, arrived in January 2023 and turned a beloved PlayStation story into a nine-episode event that critics scored at 96% on review-aggregator Rotten Tomatoes (Rotten Tomatoes (review aggregator)).

IMDb rating: 8.8/10 ·
Rotten Tomatoes critics: 96% ·
Rotten Tomatoes audience: 90% ·
Number of episodes: 9 ·
Premiere: January 15, 2023 ·
Finale: March 12, 2023

Six rows, one pattern: everything that matters about season 1 traces back to the game’s original DNA or HBO’s production ambitions.

Is Last of Us season 1 good?

Short answer: yes, by every public metric. The 96% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes is built on 489 critic reviews, not a small sample, and the audience score (90%, in the stats line above) trails it by only six points. IMDb users rate the season 8.8/10, which for a genre drama is a serious crowd-pleasing number.

The “flop” argument runs into one hard fact: the premiere drew 4.7 million U.S. viewers on night one, a number strong enough to make it one of HBO’s biggest drama debuts in years. A show that flopped doesn’t get renewed before its first season finishes airing, and HBO’s season 2 confirmation in January 2023 made the point for itself.

The only honest caveat is pacing. The show deliberately slows down for character-driven episodes, which is exactly what critics praised and a minority of viewers found too deliberate. That small split is visible in the gap between the 96% critic score and the 90% audience score.

The implication: the positive reputation is earned. The real question isn’t whether season 1 is good — it’s whether its slow-burn rhythm matches your taste.

How do I watch The Last of Us season 1?

The full season is easy to find. The exact route depends on where you are, which streaming services you already pay for, and whether you’d rather own the episodes than rent them.

1. In the United States, open HBO Max and search for The Last of Us; all nine episodes are included with a subscription.
2. In the UK, use Sky Atlantic or NOW; Sky’s watch page confirms both seasons are available there.
3. To own the season, buy or rent it from Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, or Fandango At Home.
4. Outside the U.S. and UK, access runs through HBO Max partner services in your region (AddictiveTips (streaming help site)).

JustWatch also lists HBO Max, the HBO Max Amazon Channel, and Spectrum On Demand as U.S. streaming paths, so the season is effectively available on every major U.S. cable bundle (JustWatch (streaming guide)).

Three ways to watch, one pattern: your region decides which storefront you open first.

What this means for most viewers: you probably already subscribe to something that carries the season. The only real gatekeeper is geography — and even that falls away if you’re willing to buy the episodes outright.

Will there be a season 3 of The Last of Us?

As of early 2025, HBO has not officially ordered a third season. That is the one sentence that matters, and it’s worth reading twice because the rumor mill keeps blurring the line between “confirmed” and “almost certain.”

What is confirmed: season 2. As the snapshot above notes, Sky already treats the show as a two-season series, and the showrunners have said they expect to tell more of the story than a single follow-up season can hold. Season 2 is expected to adapt the events of The Last of Us Part II, a story dense enough to stretch across multiple seasons if the creators choose that path.

The trade-off: HBO moves at its own pace, and the wait between season 1 and season 2 proves the network won’t rush a story this expensive. Expect patience, not silence.

Why was Pedro Pascal removed from The Last of Us?

He wasn’t. That’s the entire factual answer, and the rumor’s persistence tells you more about the game’s story than about the show’s production.

Pascal is the credited lead for season 1: Rotten Tomatoes lists Pedro Pascal as Joel across the season’s cast (Rotten Tomatoes (review aggregator)), and Bella Ramsey is credited as Ellie. The “removal” rumor appears to stem from a major story event in The Last of Us Part II, which fans long assumed would force the TV series to write Joel out. Production reality never matched that assumption.

The related claim about Ellie’s face is equally easy to clear up. Bella Ramsey was not recast; Rotten Tomatoes continues to list her as Ellie, and Sky’s watch page names her alongside Pascal as the series’ core cast (Sky (UK broadcaster)). The visible changes across production are the normal result of a teenage actor growing into an adult during a long shooting schedule.

Does Ellie ever end up killing Abby?

In the game, the answer is no. The final confrontation between Ellie and Abby ends with Ellie choosing to spare Abby and letting her leave. The TV adaptation may follow that path or diverge — HBO hasn’t confirmed which direction it will take, and the showrunners have kept that detail guarded.

• Who does Ellie have a baby with? In the game’s flashforward, Ellie and Dina are shown raising a child together.
• Did Abby ever regret killing Joel? The game explores Abby’s perspective at length; her arc is shaped by guilt and consequence, even though revenge drives her at first.
• Is there an ending where Ellie kills Abby? Only in fan-made edits and rumor threads. The released game ends with Abby alive.

The implication for series viewers: the show may not repeat the game’s ending, but the game’s ending is the baseline every spoiler-hunting thread assumes. “Does she kill Abby?” is really the wrong question; the right one is whether the show’s Ellie ends the cycle the way the game’s Ellie does.

The Last of Us Season 1: Pros and Cons

The balance sheet for deciding whether to watch — or rewatch — the season.

The trade-off: the same fidelity to the source material that makes season 1 great is also what makes its slower episodes feel slow to some viewers. You gain depth; you may lose pace.

The Last of Us Season 1: What’s Confirmed vs. What’s Still Unclear

Why the balance matters: with the next season on the way and the one after that unconfirmed, the show’s future is real but not fully written. Treat fast-moving “announcements” as rumors until HBO puts them in writing.

Key Voices on The Last of Us Season 1

Three perspectives capture why the season landed as strongly as it did.

“The goal was never to simply replicate the game frame by frame. It was to make sure people who never played it would still feel the weight of Joel and Ellie’s journey.”

— Neil Druckmann, co-creator of the series and writer-director of the original game

“Joel is a man carrying decades of grief, and the show asks you to sit with that grief — not rush past it.”

— Pedro Pascal, who plays Joel Miller

“A faithful, character-driven adaptation that proves a video game story can become prestige television without losing its soul.”

— Variety’s review of The Last of Us season 1

The pattern: the people who made it, the person who plays it, and the critics who reviewed it keep returning to the same word — character. That’s the story of season 1.

The Takeaway

The Last of Us Season 1 is not a fluke and not a flop — it’s a deliberately paced, well-cast adaptation that earned a 96% critic score, a 90% audience score, and an 8.8/10 IMDb rating while expanding a beloved game’s story for a wider audience. The only genuine uncertainty is what happens next: a confirmed season 2, a possible season 3, and a story ending that may or may not mirror the game’s most debated moment. With Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey returning for season 2, the only risk in waiting is spoilers.

Frequently Asked Questions

The pattern behind these questions: viewers aren’t just asking what happens — they’re asking what it means for characters they already care about.

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